Once upon a time, there was a she, and a he, and many more important hes and shes. A series of drabbles, short and long, set before, during, and after the series, with a healthy dose of what-ifs sprinkled in between.

HA! Back to write more T10K stuff- why? Because the 10+ pages bother me; this deserves waaayyyy more. So here I present a series of drabbles based on the LJ 100 themes, AU scenarios, etc. No focused pairing, but anything could happen, so to speak. And each drabble will be written in its own style.

3 per chapter: first up, Birthday, Fire, and Strangers

Disclaimer: I don't own the 10th kingdom

Birthday

"Happy twenty! The big two- O!" her father announced, wrapping his arms around her in a surprisingly tight hug.

"Thanks dad."

Virginia wiggled out of Anthony Lewis' grip, to the latter's disappointment. The man proceeded to light the candles on the cake, a cheap grocery store item by the looks of it. He ushered her in a chair.

"Well," he said, annoyed.

"What?"

"It's your birthday! At least try to look happy."

She rolled her eyes. Because the thing was- she was never happy, especially on her birthday. There was always that lingering sense of disappointment on the day celebrating her birth. Thirteen years had passed, and the one person she wanted to show up never did.

"It's not like mom's ever coming back."

That was a fact she had grown to accept. Tony went stiff. A few moments. Everything stops.

"Make a wish." Cold. Slow.

Virginia clapped her hands together. The world turns again.

"And make it a good wish this time, maybe a better job for your old man or winning the lottery or-" her father droned.

There was no point in making the same wish for the thirteenth year in a row ("I wish I had my mother").

I wish something would change, in a good way.

Fire

It is a cook. It is a lifesaver. It is a killer.

It was rising smoke and gusts of orange, yellow, and red. He didn't know what to do, where to go, who to call. So he howled, and howled, and howled.

The den was ruined, a pile of smoldering sticks. They howled back, the voices of siblings in pain, and parents with a final message.

Blisters, bruises, blood, welts, burns. It didn't matter. Not any more- run, run, run. There was nothing but wisps of smoke from the den- not even bones would be left.

"Goodbye."

They were gone. He wanted to go back, limp if he had to; he wasn't there when the good farmers came- no, no- he just had to go hunting- hunger, damn hunger, damn. He should have been with them when the fire came.

Damn fear. Damn pain.

He would go back in the morning.

Now, he would just curl up, soak the leg in the river, and weep. Because he is a lone cub, a lone wolf.

He hated being alone.

Strangers

Maybe she was stuck in some sort of odd delusion or nightmare or- oh no, what if she was dead?- or maybe she was just high. That's it. Yeah. A party at the Grill in the Green, after the dog. She probably just had a drink, a spiked drink.

Perfectly rational- oh, who was she kidding? She was stuck in a beanstalk forest, a BEANSTALK forest, infested with GIANTS, she was wearing INVISIBLE SHOES stolen from a TROLL, her father was in a prison named after SNOW WHITE. And there was that all-too-real creep after her.

"Virginia," she heard him call. Didn't he say he was a wolf? Right, he tried to eat grandmother. Great! Some howls and sniffs.

"Virginia, vir-"

It was uncanny how that creep/stalker/wolfman/whatever knew her name- they were complete strangers. Why me? The sooner she got away from him the better. The sooner she went home the better.

She was a stranger in a strange land surrounded by everything under the sun, after all.

Feel free to review, and enjoy.

I'll be updating this sporadically- drabbles come in faster than full-blown stories, so this little sideproject won't be hiatused or anything. And even if no one reviews this, I'll still update! Because as I said before, this show deserves waayyy more.

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.